Hideaway with me Hideaway from me Me and you Me alone Alone in pain Alone with regret Regret the past Regret the memories Memories of tears Memories of heartbreak Heartbreak song Heartbreak hotel Hotel of broken dreams Hotel of shattered love Love lost Love strain Strain to hear me Strain to feel Feel the weight Feel something real Real love Real life Life alone Life together Together forever Together for now Now is the time Now, here’s your chance Chance to relate Chance to reveal Reveal what you feel Reveal what I mean Mean to you Mean and rude Rude love Rude noise Noise of my heart Noise, blank Blank page Blank and empty Empty, like my soul Empty, never whole Whole damn year Whole damn heart Heart and soul Heart beats Beat away the pain Beat down the feelings Feelings Pain

**Blitz: a 50-line poem of short phrases and images. Line 1 should be one short phrase or image (like “build a boat”). Line 2 should be another short phrase or image using the same first word as the first word in Line 1 (something like “build a house”). Lines 3 and 4 should be short phrases or images using the last word of Line 2 as their first words (so Line 3 might be “house for sale” and Line 4 might be “house for rent”). Lines 5 and 6 should use the last word of Line 4 as their first words, and so on until you’ve made 48 lines. Line 49 should be the last word of Line 48. Line 50 should be the last word of Line 47. The title of the poem should be three words long and follow this format: (first word of Line 3) (preposition or conjunction) (first word of line 47). No punctuation.

“I need to get back to my bachelorette party,” the woman with the curly black hair complained.
“Sweetie, like I said, you’re dead,” Nakia confirmed with an eye roll, from behind the tall desk.
“I’m marrying the man of my dreams in twenty-nine hours,” she cried, “I can’t be dead.”
“Here’s some literature about the afterlife. We have group counseling Tuesdays and Thursdays,” Nakia replied, dropping a brochure in front of the crying woman, “They have snacks.”
“How can you be so cold,” the woman cried.
“Honey it’s a job,” Nakia replied, “We all gotta do something with our afterlife.”

She never Missed her mark, forever A perfectionist, Kelis was pure

Fire and rage, and with a shotgun as her cure For all the sticky situations she endured

**Trois-par-Huit: a poem containing three stanzas of 3, 3 and 2 lines OR 3, 2 and 3 lines: 8 lines total with a syllable count of 3, 6, 9, 12, 12, 9, 6, 3. The rhyming pattern is AAB BBC CC where the last line is the title of the poem and summarizes the meaning of the poem. These poems are to appear center aligned.**

Jehnina tipped her hat as she gazed past the portrait displaying an unflattering image of her face. Were her eyes really that sunken? Were her cheeks truly that pointy? If they’re gonna hunt her down to the edges of the earth, they could have at least gotten her picture right.